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More than five years since he first slammed a basketball through a playground hoop in New York City, Louisville’s spring-loaded freshman guard keeps a pair of orange and white Nikes in a place of honor at the family home in Connecticut.

It represents a career milestone, but probably not a peak.

With 6:24 remaining in the first half of Wednesday’s 84-65 victory over Florida State, Mitchell left his feet in pursuit of a missed shot, grabbed a rebound and threw down a resounding one-handed dunk before returning to the floor of the KFC Yum! Center.

Jaws dropped. Fists raised. Spectators united in a spontaneous roar. The noise was so loud, Mitchell said later, that he could not hear U of L coach Rick Pitino calling the next play. And just like that, Donovan Mitchell was a video gone viral, an ESPN highlight clip Tweeted with the succinct heading, “No words.”

You can see the dunk in this highlight reel

“It was pretty special,” Pitino said. “All of a sudden, he came out of nowhere. Now I have seen him do it before, but that was a pretty darn good one. It was explosive. When he jumps off two feet, my God, he can get up.”

Only an extraordinary leaper could provoke such a response in a city of dunking devotees, but Mitchell’s seventh U of L slam caused such a stir that it immediately caused local connoisseurs to ponder its place in rim-rattling posterity.

Like Kyle Kuric’s 2011 “Papa John’s Dunk of the Year,” Mitchell made his move from the right wing with his right hand, but without the advantage of having the ball on a fast break.

Like so many of Darrell Griffith’s dunks, Mitchell was able to seize a rebound and complete the slam in a single airborne sequence.

But there was more to it than that. To make the play, Mitchell had to time his leap to catch the carom as Damion Lee’s 3-point shot glanced first off the rim and then off the backboard glass. Then, in mid-air, he had to pluck the ball out of the hands of Florida State’s unsuspecting star, Malik Beasley.

“All I saw was the ball in the air and I just knew that nobody boxed me out,” Mitchell said. “(Florida State’s Devon) Bookert looked at me and looked away, like I wasn’t going to go for the rebound. I was just praying for a miss. Usually I don’t pray for a miss, but I prayed for one that time. I was wide open.

“... I talked to (Beasley) after the game. I felt like him because he’s a crazy dunker. I told him I just pulled one out of his book.”

If Malik Beasley has this particular dunk in his repertoire, it carries a daunting degree of difficulty.

“Honestly, of dunks that I've seen, in person, (it’s) easily No. 1, because of the atmosphere.” U of L's Lee said. “... I’ll give him a 9 (out of 10), only because I’ve seen him do the dunk when he shoots it from the 3-point line, makes it, then windmills it out of the hoop. That’s a 10.

“Actually, you know what? Give him an 8. Don’t tell him I said that.”

Sophomore guard Quentin Snider said Mitchell’s dunk ranked No. 2 on his career charts, behind one Montrezl Harrell made last season. But U of L 7-footer Anas Mahmoud assigned Mitchell extra credit because of the size disparity.

“See, Montrezl was 6-8,” Mahmoud said. “Donovan, he's 6-foot, 6-1 on a good day. When you see a 6-1 guy jump, and his head is over the rim, that's something special.”

Officially, Mitchell is listed at 6-foot-3. Next to campaign promises, basketball heights might be this country’s most consistent distortion. When a player can elevate like Donovan Mitchell, though, his size is sometimes a secondary consideration.

Pitino has told the story more than once of how he was instinctively dubious of a basketball player from wealthy Greenwich, Conn. Wednesday night, he recounted his impression of Mitchell from an Atlanta tournament in the summer of 2014, and another jaw-dropping slam.

“They just threw the ball up from the other side of the court and out of nowhere comes this guy and just dunks the basketball,” Pitino said. “My mouth stood open. The whole gym stood up and went crazy. I said to (assistant coach) Kenny (Johnson), ‘I think we gotta get that kid.’ “

Tim Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com or @TimSulllivan714 on Twitter.